


On the Radio

by bar2d2s



Category: The Flash (Comics), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, music shaming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-26 02:38:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16673164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bar2d2s/pseuds/bar2d2s
Summary: When his dad died, Owen moved from Gotham to Keystone.It's been an adjustment.





	On the Radio

**Author's Note:**

> It occurred to me exactly three seconds after I came up with the title to add a disclaimer that I was not referencing the Donna Summer song OR the Regina Spektor song. I couldn't think of a title, basically.

It took Owen longer than he thought it would to remember that he was, in fact, no longer living on the east coast.

Keystone and Gotham both had a gritty quality to them, but while Gotham had the kind of grit that made a person afraid to walk around alone at night, Keystone’s was more of an all-American, grease under your fingernails kind of grit. The inhabitants of Keystone were also much friendlier than Gothamites, though it, sadly, didn’t mean that they were less on their guard when it came to crime. A solid six decades of dealing with supervillains would desensitize  _any_  city. It got colder earlier too, chilly winds forcing their way up his coat sleeves as soon as late September. But the biggest change he had to get used to?

All the goddamn country music.

They were in heavy traffic, something  _else_  Gotham didn’t really have, on the way back from picking up dinner for everyone, and Owen was fiddling around with the radio in Axel’s car.

“Yo Axel, you got three country stations on your presets.”

Axel talked and dressed like a punk, when he was around people he wanted to intimidate. His car was tricked out, both literally and metaphorically, within an inch of its life. And yet, three of the six preset music stations on his stereo still clicked over to country music when pressed.

Axel’s mouth pressed into a confused line. “So? Those are the good three. You think I’m gonna have 102.2 or 807SPURS on there?”

“The uh. The  _good_  three?” Axel rolled his eyes, but sort of fondly. As if he was just remembering that Owen was from a whole other side of the continent.

“Yeah. There are twelve stations that play country, those are the good three. 999 has all the older stuff that grandmas like, y’know, from the 40s and 50s, 101.5 has a more southern rock vibe to it, and 105.9 plays newer stuff, from the 90s and up.”

Without replying, Owen went and checked the other presets. Two were pop stations, one was a hip hop station. But three were still... “Do you keep ‘em because of Len or something?” Now Axel seemed like he was getting annoyed.

“No? Is it really that hard to believe that I  _like_  country music?”

“Well, I mean, you look like,” Owen gestured to him best he was able, arms still full of takeout from their food run, and Axel snorted.

“Owen, if we’re officially using stereotypes against each other, what exit did you live off of?” Oh, that wasn’t cool. You generally weren’t supposed to bring up that Gotham was technically in New Jersey. “People around here listen to country a lot. I grew up listening to country. I mean, I expanded my taste pretty early, but still. And if you don’t wanna listen to the radio...” He held up an AUX cable. Owen grabbed for it gratefully, before he realized he’d forgotten his phone.

“Hey, gimme your phone.” Axel twitched in surprise, hand flying to his pocket protectively. “Ax, come on. Nothing good is on the radio and we still have at least a half hour in this traffic, gimme your phone.”

There were a few beats of silence, punctuated by a horn in the distance.

“Okay...but you need to promise you’re not gonna make fun of me.” Surprisingly, Axel actually sounded a bit self-conscious. Cute. Owen sighed.

“Just gimme the phone.” Traffic crawled as he scrolled through Axel’s music library, nose wrinkling. He didn’t recognize most of these artists! Oh that explained it, he was in the Last Played section. Maybe if he went in alphabetical order...

“Dude, you like ABBA?!”

“Get out of my car!”


End file.
